Bergerac: The Hood and the Harlequin (BBC-1 20 Dec 1981, with Greta Scacchi)

April 13, 2017

As The Hood and the Harlequin opens Jim and Francine are on a supposedly romantic weekend break in London. Although Jim is combining business with pleasure as on the way back he has a prisoner to escort and he’s none too pleased when a bored Francine strikes up a conversation with a photographer called Beaumont on board the Jersey ferry.

Meanwhile the Bureau have had word that French gangster Jacques Tabouis is on the run somewhere in Europe. Then his girlfriend Anne is seen on the island. A round the clock watch is mounted to see if she will lead them to Tabouis.

A young Greta Scacchi is the chief highlight as Anne leading the Surete along with Jim and his men a merry dance as she stays one step ahead of them. It’s obvious right from the start that the photographer Beaumont is in fact Tambouis but the Bureau believe it to be a different man they are keeping an eye on.

Anne is on Jersey to retrieve a cache of Tambouis’ money from a safety deposit box but Jim and co finally realise what she is up to and manage to arrest her. Taking possession of Tambouis’ money at the same time.

After a low key build up there is a fine action set piece (during Anne’s arrest) with the man the Bureau believe to be Tabouis taken out by the real Tabouis aka Beaumont who then kidnaps Francine in a bid to get the money back from the Bureau.

There is a strange dynamic going on between Jim and Francine in this season finale episode as she strikes up quite the friendship with Beaumont, it could be well be a make Jim jealous thing, or a had enough of Jim putting work first thing but she does seem to quite like Beaumont. In reality it has to work like that for the sake of the storyline -if Francine was not attracted to Beaumont then there is no way she would head off on a picnic with him – which of course leads to the kidnap.